Our Last Dance
by talkingtothemoon
Summary: One-Shot. Joel and Theresa say goodbye to each other properly. Please read and review.


**Our Last Dance.**

**Notes:** I'm still working on my Jacqui/Rhys/Gilly etc. fanfic but I really wanted to do something short for these two because I ship them so hard. It's not very good because they're not characters I'd usually look at in detail, but here goes anyway. Inspired by the song _Last Dance_ by _Camera Can't Lie. _Set after Joel's last episode in December.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong>I don't own the characters or places mentioned in the story, obviously.

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><p><strong><em>If this was our last dance<br>__I'd wait in the rain  
><em>_Just to see your face  
><em>_If this was our last chance  
><em>_I'd ask you to stay  
><em>_For one last dance  
><em>**

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><p>She stood there, still as a rock with just her eyes flickering ever so slightly as they stared deeply into Joel's. He was leaving. Already. She tilted her head marginally upwards to look at her boyfriend, Will as she felt the warmth of his arm wrap around her. Her eyes soon glanced back into Joel's direction again. He looked miserable, even more so as Will had turned up. She wanted to fling her arms around him, give him the biggest hug, but Will's sternness told her she couldn't. The way he spoke to Joel, his tone of voice, the sharp words that edged their way out, even the way he held her; it was as if thought he owned her. Theresa bit down on her lip, blinking back the few tears that had begun to form in her eyes. She'd only recently met him, but she'd gained attached to him, unlike she had with anyone, for ages. It was as if she already knew him, perhaps that was because of the bond she'd had with his father, Warren. She watched hopelessly as Joel strode away with his bag hanging over his back.<p>

"I'm gonna go see what the others are up to," Will told her as soon as Joel was out of sight, pressing his lips briefly against the side of her cold face. Theresa continued to stare into the darkness in which Joel had disappeared into, but managed to give Will a quick nod. "Well…are you coming?" HHHe asked her.

"Actually I think I'm gonna go home, left Lib with Kathleen-Angel so I should probably get back there. Y-you stay with your friends," Theresa replied, snapping quickly out of her gaze and looking back at her boyfriend.

"Yeah…right, well I'll see you soon, yeah?" Will replied, stuttering ever so slightly as he awkwardly glided a few steps backwards into the direction of 'The Dog'.

"Yeah. See you soon," Theresa said, quietly, nodding her head at him once again whilst forcing a large smile onto her face as she attempted to speak in her normal, lively voice. She stumbled along the pavement, her high-heel shoes scraping loudly against the hard floor as she set out to try and find Joel. She couldn't let him leave, not like this. Spots of rain began to fall down, getting vastly heavier with every single second. She stared around, looking everywhere, but the darkness made it impossible.

"You seen Joel?" A voice asked from behind her. She turned quickly round, her shoe skidding on the wet floor.

"Oh, hey Mitzeee. He told me he was leaving and then he just like-he like walked away. I'm trying to find him again."

"That's funny. Swear I just saw him walking in the direction of your place?"

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><p>He threw himself down on the drenched, tiled paving. He flew his head backwards, bashing it on the McQueen's front door. Joel knew Theresa wouldn't be there yet, so he just…waited, his packed-up bag by his side and his eyes staring upwards at the night's sky. It was pitch black outside; he could barely see anything except the shadows the trees made as they swished back and forth in the strong, winter wind. Them and the very few stars that were visible in the moonlit sky. He sat there for a while, more than a while. There was nothing to do except sit there thinking. He tried not to, he didn't want to think about Warren, about this place, about any of it, but his mind wouldn't stop. Irritated by his thoughts he flung himself angrily up off the ground, about to leave this place forever. The dimly lit outside-light of the McQueen's glared up as it felt his presence again. That's when he heard the sound of clumsy footsteps coming closer. He stood still, the only other thing he could hear was the sound of his own heavy breathing. The footsteps grew closer and evidently louder. A shadow made its way along the fence and into the garden and that was when he saw the face and heard the shriek of shock the girl let out. Her eyes immediately positioned themselves on Joel. His well build body and dark jacket would've been noticeable even in almost-complete darkness. She took a couple of steps, slowly up to him, almost overwhelmed to see him standing there.<p>

"J-Joel, what are you doing here?" She asked, in shock. Both her eyes and her mouth opened wide as she moved her eyes downwards. "I've been looking all over," she continued, faintly, aiming her words down to the ground, almost sounding embarrassed.

"Wanted to say bye, properly," he spat out, clearly. The second sentence Theresa had spoke took a while to sink in as he finally realised what she'd meant. "Wait. You _have_?" He asked, sounding naively surprised. Theresa nodded. She looked upwards at the sky. Ever since she'd caught sight of Joel, she'd forgotten all about the heavy rain. She quickly brushed her soft, blonde hair with her hands, making sure the wind and rain hadn't blown it out of place. She bit her lip as she fixated her eyes back onto Joel, his facial expressions hadn't changed much since she'd seen him previously when Will had interrupted.

"Well, we should go inside…it's like really wet out here," Theresa quickly murmured, a little awkwardly.

"Nah. I'm gonna be off, in a sec."

"Y-you can't leave," Theresa stammered, almost stamping her foot out of her annoyance, whilst she spoke.

"So now you care?" Joel breathed out through his teeth, looking to the left of him so he didn't have to keep eye-contact with Theresa whilst he said it. It seemed whenever she was with other people, besides himself, she'd act much differently, practically ignore him. There was only one simple explanation for that. She had feelings for him but knew she couldn't act on them. In fact, that barely made it simple at all.

"Dunno what I'm gonna do without Warren, I don't," she mumbled on, the smile that was on her face, slowly fading as she ignored Joel's question, just for the moment. It felt a little more awkward than things ever had been with Joel; when it was just the two of them anyway. Attempting to fight this, she walked even closer to him, close enough that she could feel his warm breath in the cold air every time he breathed out. "Don't go. I-I don't want to lose two Fox's in a day." Joel shook his head in response and took a step backwards, looking behind himself to make sure he didn't bash into the door.

"I'm not a Fox," he stated, still furious to find out what Warren was like. Theresa grimaced at his words. The fact Warren had killed someone hadn't phased her. She'd done the same. It didn't necessarily make them bad people. Not exactly. It just meant they'd made the wrong decision, done something mental in the spare of the moment. Or perhaps not. But, she could relate to him, he'd done a lot for her and she didn't want to let go of the one thing she had left of him; his son. "I should go," Joel breathed out as the lack of words between the two of them got more and more awkward. He began to walk around Theresa, heading for the gate, but Theresa quickly grabbed his hand so he could walk any further, forcing him to turn back around and look at her. She stared into his narrow-looking eyes and bit down on her lip.

"No," she exclaimed, suddenly. "I was looking for you, like, for ages. I planned on talking you out of going, I had all these words queued up in my head, but now all the words have gone from my mind and my mouth's just spitting out all of this rubbish." She sighed, frustrated with herself, before continuing. "You say this place is full of bad memories, Joel. But what about _me_? Am Ia bad memory?" She let lose of Joel's hand but continued to stare him in the eye.

"Course not," he said with a sigh, turning to face her properly again. "It's just not enough," he added whilst grinding his teeth and trying to look away from her. Watching Theresa with Will was starting to become more difficult as his feelings for her began to grow more and more each day. By this time the rain was beginning to drift away, with just a few drops dripping down on them every couple of seconds. Theresa didn't know what to say. She reciprocated the feelings but she also knew that shouldn't have been the case. She loved Will. Joel though, it was different with him. She could talk to him about anything, act stupid, be herself and he'd never judge her, laugh at her, patronise her. It had never been like that with Will. He'd always be the smart one. And the worse thing was, he _knew _he was the smarter one. Without thinking, he'd presume she couldn't do things. But deep down, she was smart as well; she knew that, even if she didn't always act that way. Joel knew that too, he never even questioned it. Seeing the way her eyes had turned sad, because of him, Joel stepped closer to her again, he couldn't resist it. It was as it they were magnetic; being pushed towards each other. Neither of them could pull their eyes away from each others and suddenly their lack of words no longer mattered. The sadness in her eyes wasn't the only thing showing through. Lust, warmth, a lack of resistance were just some of the things that whirled around in her pretty, blue eyes. Joel's eyes began to look that little bit happier, as if in this very moment, everything was fine, as if he didn't have a single care in the world.

Theresa dropped her arms down, having previously had them in a crossed position. Her left one clashed against the side of her fluffy coat pocket. A load noise soon blast out of it, causing her to jump and forcing her out of the moment. She shook her head as she took her phone out of her pocket. Her fingers were numb from the cold air, causing difficulty in stopping the music that came streaming out.

"Leave it on," Joel insisted as he stared down at it. The music was smooth. Not the kind he'd listen to by any means, but it was relaxing, romantic and the lyrics were pretty.

"Really? Oh, right, ok."

"Put your phone down; just on the ground or something."

"But it's really wet," Theresa slurred, before shortly doing as he said and placing it carefully down by the door. As she turned back to him, Joel took her left hand in his right hand and twirled her around in a full circle. She moved as his body language instructed, but stomped her foot down, coming to a halt as she'd arrived back to face him.

"N-n-no. I can't dance, me," she rejected as she tried to loosen her hand from his. The grip he had on her was tight, not painfully tight, just tight enough that it'd take effort to pull it away. Especially when that was the last thing she actually wanted to do. She sighed as a slight smile curved on her lips whilst she took his other hand too and clasped it in hers.

"Neither can I," Joel replied, in his slightly mysterious sounding voice. "Just go with the music." The two of them began to move their feet in time with each other, in time with the rhythm of the soft, flowing music. Joel let go of one of her hands and placed it cautiously on her hip. He suddenly felt the warmth of her furry coat brush up against his hand. A smile drifted onto his face as they continued to move, just swaying, without even thinking about it. Theresa drifted her free hand up elegantly onto Joel's shoulder, resting it there as they continued to move. Her eyes began to sparkle; they refused to move off of Joel's. She looked beautiful, even more so than usual. It was crazy how much different it made you look on the outside, when you felt good on the inside. Staring back into her eyes, he was captivated in them. Theresa intertwined her fingers with Joel's before slowly taking her hand away from his and wrapping both her arms around him as he wrapped his around her waist in response. Soon, they'd begun to slow-dance. Their heads sat just inches away from each other, still keeping the contact neither of them wanted to lose. All thoughts cleared out of their minds as they got lost in the moment.

Joel moved his right hand smoothly up Theresa's body, stopping as soon as he reached her hair and brushing her fringe out of her face with his fingers. She stared at his every move, almost motionless. Their bodies grew closer together, just close enough to feel each others heartbeats. Without thinking, Theresa reached her lips over to Joels, quickly pressing them against his, just for a second before pulling away again, regret free. He'd left it up to her to make the first move and now she had. He liked it. Of course he did. Even if it was just a second long, he'd not experienced something so real in so long. He'd never felt so alive…he'd never felt his hear pound so voluntarily for a girl before, most of all though, she just made him feel like a better person. There was something about her that just let out warmth. He gazed at her once again. It was as if their eyes were having a conversation with each other, the words of conversations streaming from their hearts but forgetting to pass through their minds. Joel moved his lips back to Theresa's. The music had come to an end, but they'd been too involved in one another to even realise. His lips tugged softly on hers in a slow-motion. He moved his hand down ever so slightly from her head to her cheek, resting it there as their lips continued to touch. He took them gradually away and removed all contact he had with her as he came back down to earth. He looked downwards and sighed quietly to himself, suspiring before he looked back at Theresa.

"I need to go," he whispered under his breath; his words only just loud enough for her to hear in the quietness.

"But, even…" She couldn't get her words out right. She didn't know what to say, how to stop him. She was still in shock from what had just happened, or maybe not so much in shock, maybe more caught up in it.

"Yeah," he replied, almost unwillingly, before squeezing his lips tightly together. "For now."

"So this is it. Goodbye. It's actually happening. Already," Theresa croaked out. A couple of tears drifted from the corners of her eyes and down her cold, red cheeks. "I'll miss ya, Joel." Joel smiled at her, with tears in his eyes himself.

"This is it for now, but just for now," he repeated, confidently, grabbing his bag and walking off before having to say even more of an heart-wrenching goodbye. Theresa crossed her arms and rubbed them with her hands to warm her up as she glared after him. Biting her lip, she watched him walk until he was completely out of sight.


End file.
